londro512

Tonight my boyfriend and I decided to try Giotti's. I ordered crab dip with toasted bread slices and a southwest chicken panini. He ordered an italian sub with onion rings. The onion rings came out with what was to the best of our knowledge buffalo sauce mixed with ranch dressing. It was a shock to the unsuspecting eater. This would have been dismissable as peoples' tastes differ. Our server did bring us ketchup to dip the onion rings in instead. I hoped that the southwest chicken panini I just ordered didn't have the same sauce.

The crab dip was brought to our table with no bread remaining in the crusts. I'm assuming they must have been burned out. Our server promised to bring me more bread, but didn't want the crab dip to get cold. If I were her, I would have deemed this dish unacceptable for serving until the entire dish was intact. I was later delivered three pieces of equally burnt bread, save the bread inside the crusts.

Next came our southwest chicken panini and italian sub. As I feared, the panini had the buffalo sauce on it. Our server brought me some ranch dressing to drown the heat. I ate what I could of it, but we already agreed before we were done eating that we would never come back again.

Our server was nice enough to try to get the items we were unsatisfied with off our bill. The owner wouldn't allow her to and instead gave us a $10 gift certificate. We politely explained that we most likely wouldn't be returning and that they could keep the gift certificate.

All of the above issues were handled pretty well by our server, who was trying her best to accomodate us and make sure that you had our repeat business. What was most shocking to me were the comments made by the owner in clear earshot of most of the restaurant which included the following:

"Nothing gets taken off the bill."

"I don't care if they come back."

When my boyfriend went up to just pay for the meal in its entirety so that we could just get the hell out of there and go home, the owner said to him:

"I'm sure you know how to run a restaurant. I'm trying to be nice by giving you the gift certificate." He also told him to just leave without paying for the food, but my boyfriend insisted. Eventually, the panini was removed from our bill with the help of our server.

My boyfriend doesn't know how to run a restaurant. However, I happen to be in the business of food service management and have also dealt with a lot of restaurant owners in my career. I would never argue with a customer who was unhappy with their food. If an employee of mine were to argue with a customer, that behavior would lead to termination. I might even expect such behavior from lower level employees, but certainly not from a manager or owner!

I've received bad service before and eaten some pretty bad food, but never have heard the owner of a brand new restaurant make such unprofessional and rude comments that would cause customers to not return to his establishment. Knowing the failure rate of restaurants and how difficult it is to stay in business, feedback from customers should be welcomed and encouraged and not feared or taken personally.